The Best Week for the British Pound So Far This Year

We find ourselves already in the third week of 2017, and with January rapidly approaching its end, we could be in store for a better week.

An overview of the currency markets for January 16th – January 20th 2017

The British pound stood at 1.2177 as the week got underway, and it did little better on day one, falling to 1.2064 to close the day. Did this provide a clue to how the rest of the week would progress? Surprisingly, we did far better on Tuesday, rising by more than 2% to reach a healthier 1.2310. The next three days were up and down (more of the latter than the former), but that rate from Tuesday meant we were still able to finish up for the week, on 1.2277.

So, could we do this well against the euro too? Here, we began on 1.1422 before experiencing the same fall on Monday as we had against the dollar. We fell back to 1.1388 before having a great day on Tuesday and rising to 1.1522 in the process. We then had ups and downs as we would expect, but once again we had done enough on that day early in the week to achieve an improvement. We closed on 1.1548 on Friday night.

Moving on now, let’s see how the pound could perform against the Hong Kong dollar. We opened trading on 9.4430 before falling to 9.3566 on Monday night. Tuesday was just as successful for the pound here as it had been elsewhere thus far, seeing the pound rise to 9.5471 in the process. We endured mixed results for the remainder of the week, but once again we finished on top with an exchange rate of 9.5256.

Our fourth stop evaluates how the pound did against yet another dollar, the New Zealand dollar. The pattern here was not quite as pronounced as it had been against the other currencies, but we still improved on Tuesday. Here, though, we began on 1.7078, fell to 1.6987 on Monday and then rose again to 1.7141 on Tuesday. A few unsteady days followed before the pound finished in better condition on 1.7196 for the week.

With just one currency left to review, we have a good idea of how the pound will perform against the Australian dollar. And once again, we were right. The pound began trading on 1.6248 before dropping back to 1.6139 on Monday. It then rose to 1.6317 on Tuesday evening and had an unsteady week to finish on 1.6300. Once again, we came out on top in the end.

Notable events in the world of currency

More good news against the Canadian dollar

A very good result was had here as well, as the pound rose significantly from 1.6002 to 1.6417 this week.

More of the same – albeit not as pronounced – against the Swiss franc

The pound managed to increase from 1.2253 to 1.2387 against the Swiss currency this week, so another good result was had here

Another gradual rise against the Icelandic krona

Here too, we had more good news. The pound began the week on 138.858 before finishing better off at 139.208.

So, this was an encouraging week indeed. Perhaps news of how Brexit was going to work settled the markets and let the pound do much better than it had in the past. We have a long way to go to regain the level the pound was trading at some months ago, but the signs are beginning to look more encouraging. We will be watching closely to see what happens next, and whether the British pound would continue to rise in the coming weeks.

There is a long way to go yet with Brexit, though, and talks with the EU could yet see the value of the pound fall once again. For now, though, we can enjoy one better week, which is something we haven’t seen in quite a while.